As a farmer, I’m used to managing budgets and planning ahead; looking at our natural capital base, our assets, inputs and projections for profit and growth. It’s a hard job. Within this federal budget, there are some good things for agriculture. There’s funding to open up export trade opportunities and overcome market access barriers, biosecurity and some investments in rural infrastructure, health, education and regional development. But there’s one blind spot that’s a glaringly obvious gap. This is a budget that fails to recognise the impacts that damage to our climate is having on farmers. Right now, NSW is staring down the barrel of drought, Western Queensland has endured six years of consecutive dry and much of southwest WA is again anxiously watching the skies and praying for rain. Yet the amount of funding allocated for climate action, adaptation or a clean energy transition? Sweet bugger all. In fact, funding has been cut for the solutions we need to make progress. There’s no new funding for renewables, spending for climate change projects has almost halved, a phase out of the Renewable Energy Target by 2020 and critically, no new investment in research, development and climate-smart agriculture. This is a huge missed opportunity for the government to back a sustainable future driven by clean energy, climate-smart agriculture and resilient regional communities. Every farmer knows that your bottom line depends on how well you manage your land. It’s your greatest asset and like most farmers, I’m keen to pass that asset onto my kids. Real action on climate change is the only option allowing that to happen. With our future at stake, some tokenistic sweeteners just won’t cut it.

Budget fails farmers in need of climate action | OPINION

As a farmer, I’m used to managing budgets and planning ahead; looking at our natural capital base, our assets, inputs and projections for profit and growth. It’s a hard job.

Within this federal budget, there are some good things for agriculture. There’s funding to open up export trade opportunities and overcome market access barriers, biosecurity and some investments in rural infrastructure, health, education and regional development.

But there’s one blind spot that’s a glaringly obvious gap.

This is a budget that fails to recognise the impacts that damage to our climate is having on farmers. Right now, NSW is staring down the barrel of drought, Western Queensland has endured six years of consecutive dry and much of southwest WA is again anxiously watching the skies and praying for rain.

In fact, funding has been cut for the solutions we need to make progress. There’s no new funding for renewables, spending for climate change projects has almost halved, a phase out of the Renewable Energy Target by 2020 and critically, no new investment in research, development and climate-smart agriculture.

This is a huge missed opportunity for the government to back a sustainable future driven by clean energy, climate-smart agriculture and resilient regional communities.

Every farmer knows that your bottom line depends on how well you manage your land. It’s your greatest asset and like most farmers, I’m keen to pass that asset onto my kids. Real action on climate change is the only option allowing that to happen.

With our future at stake, some tokenistic sweeteners just won’t cut it.

Mick Alexander is the director of Grazing BestPrac and a beef grazier from Queensland.